On Wed, 9 Nov 2005 19:24:39 UTC, wollman@khavrinen.csail.mit.edu
(Garrett Wollman) wrote,
>> If there was ever an Allston CO, it was gone many years ago.
> I don't think so. It's located on the short diagonal street behind
> the gas station at the corner of Western and Harvard. Now it's
> probably just a remote wirecenter on the Brighton CO.
That would probably be Spurr St., behind the Gulf. City on-line tax
records show the entire triangular mini-block to belong to Cumberland
Farms (which runs Gulf stations), while Harvard owns the other side of
the street. No land nearby appear to belong to Verizon (under any of
its names). It is possible, though, that they have a hut there,
something that is not classified as a wire center, on rented land.
(The LERG shows no switches in Allston.) They might, for instance,
have a Digital Loop Carrier. But the nearby Soldiers Field Park
apartment complex, while in North Allston, has Harvard extensions
(617-498).
Nearby buildings on Western also have Cambridge numbers. Perhaps it's
a Cambridge DLC, though being so close to the Cambridge-Ware St. CO,
I'd be a little surprised they'd use one. Also it would be right on
the rate center boundary, a strange place for a DLC. In any case, all
of Verizon's Brighton prefix codes are homed on the Brighton (Wirt
St.) switch.
> (When I lived in Brighton, I also had an ASPinwall (617-277) number
> and Brookline ZIP code. This did not result in lower insurance rates;
> the insurance companies have maps that show where the town line lies
> -- as do the city and town parking offices. The other important
> Brookline exchange you didn't mention was BEAcon (617-232).)
Funny; when I moved my car registration to Massachusetts in 1978, I
gave my "Brookline 02146" postal address for my Brighton apartment,
and got the Brookline rate. It was all on ZIP code; different Boston
ZIPs got different rates, almost always higher than anyplace else in
the state. I wonder if they changed that rule. Thanks for pointing
out BEAcon; I knew I was forgetting at least one.
>> The 617-931 choke exchange is listed in the LERG to the Cambridge 02T
>> tandem, a DMS-200. It's one of two tandems in VZ's 210 Bent St. CO
>> (the other is a 5E; a 4E next door, at 250, has been
>> decommissioned). If MIT still gets its dial tone from VZ, it comes
>> out of Bent St.
> MIT has its own 5ESS and has for a long time (it was one of the first
> 5E's sold to a non-telco customer). There's a project on now to
> figure out what to do about it before it comes up for renewal next in
> a few years' time.
Yes, the MIT 5E was installed as a PBX, when there were not a lot of
alternatives for that range (basically just the DMS-100, which as a
PBX was called an SL-100 at the time). It must be about 20 years old.
The 5E is still technically a current product, though MIT's may be an
obsolete variant. Still, newer stuff is a LOT cheaper to buy AND
operate -- smaller, less power consumption, easier, lower software
fees. What can touch the 5E's end user friendliness is an interesting
question, though. For all of its benefits, though, the 5E can't touch
the old Dorm Line Strowgers for the hands-on experience. ;-)
Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com
ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/
Fred Goldstein (SeeSigForEmail@wn6.wn.net)